5/19/10 REPORTS OK

[Thomas Dolmer]

Chase Team Denmark chased the Kingfisher storm with the Warmsector team. Bagged no tornadoes, but got some awesome structure..

Afterwards went south of OKC and got this :

More photos at http://stormchaser.dk

 

[Bill Hark]

Storm Chase Log May 19th, 2010

I am currently at a Super 8 in Shawnee, Oklahoma after a frustrating and long chase day. This was a high risk day with the potential for significant tornadoes. High risk days are also high for expectations and can disappoint. The day began in Shamrock, Texas. I was chasing with Scott McPartland, Dave Lewison, Chris Kridler and Mark Robinson and his meteorology students. We traveled east on I-40 and decided to wait in Weatherford, Oklahoma and watch for development. By afternoon, there were some small storms developing in far western Oklahoma (Roger Mills County). These storms were expected to move eastward into better moisture and likely become tornadic. We were also concerned about other storms developing to our south and north and waited awhile to decide the best area to target. The storms in Roger Mills County were becoming better organized. We headed west and then north on 183. While we were in route, the storm produced a nice tornado. Better tornadoes were expected as the storm moved east. Unfortunately, the storm was moving along the Canadian river valley and road options were poor. We initially headed west on 47 to watch the storm to our north. The storm continued eastward. We had to go back east, then north across the Canadian River near Thomas. The storm was to our northwest. At that point, I decided to take a different strategy and head northwest on 270/281 while everyone else to the direct northerly route. I hoped to see the storm from a closer vantage point and to follow it east on a dirt road by Oakwood. Big mistake. I had a nicer view of the storm but no tornadoes. The dirt road east option became increasingly muddy and slippery as I continued. I couldn’t turn around. At one point, I even got out to look for sticks to wedge under the wheels for traction. I was inching along, wheels spinning, and loosing precious time as the storm to my north moved eastward. Finally, I reached 58 and turned north to circle around and catch up with the storm. I crossed the previous path of the storm just south of Canton and encountered a road covered with hail. I couldn’t see the edge of the road or the lines due to the hail that from a distance looked like snow. It was much more slippery than snow. Visibility was nonexistent. I carefully drove north though the hail, then east 51. The storm was to my south. At Hennessey, I blasted south to get ahead of the storm. A wall cloud was visible in the notch but no tornado. Near Dover, I realized I couldn’t go farther south. Rain curtains were wrapping around the storm and cutting off my route. I turned east then briefly south. To my west, I would see some areas of rotation but no tornado. I drove east on 33 and found myself in a massive hoard of chasers. The storm did produce a brief funnel near Guthrie. I continued east and ran into Charles Edwards and his tour group, Scott, Dave, Chris et al. I was careful to quickly get out of Guthrie as the storm had reported baseball sized hail. I bet some chaser’s cars were trashed in that area. We all ended the chase in Shawnee. No tornadoes but a fun and also frustrating chase.

Storm that produced a tornado before it went HP. View at 4:02 PM.
http://www.harkphoto.com/051910stormtonorth402pm.jpg


http://www.harkphoto.com/051910hailfog.jpg

View to the south and west as storm approached 60/64 south of Hennessey. I could see in the notch but no tornado.
[URL="http://www.harkphoto.com/051910stormtowest.jpg"]http://www.harkphoto.com/051910stormtowest.jpg[/URL]

Funnel near Guthrie at 6:45 PM.
http://www.harkphoto.com/051910funnel.jpg

Bill Hark

 

[Jason Boggs]

First of all, congrats to those who scored today...I didn't fare so well. Left Amarillo late because I was at the tv station in Amarillo helping with cut-ins until 4am. I got up late but met Bri Winkler at the station at 1:30. We took off and just jetted east on I-40 to make up some time. Never got in great position to see any tornadoes, but we did see some nice structure that was worth the price of admission. I'm one that doesn't have to see tornadoes to be satisfied with a chase. If I was, I'd be disappointed quite often. I can say this...at least I got out and tried, and to me it wasn't a bust. Anyway, enough of my boring summary...now to the boring photos!

Supercell looking north from near Clinton, OK

Same storm as above, only about 20 minutes later

Semi truck turned over from tornado north of Kingfisher, OK

Looking south at distant storm from Watonga, OK

Looking southeast at storm from Watonga, OK

 

[Tyler Burg]

Chris Allington and I got on the Leedey to Guthrie, Oklahoma supercell. We setup about 10 miles east of the storm on a hill with a good view of the base, and we decided to let it come to us so it could organize first. We set up some lawn chairs and witnessed the first tornado of the day North of Leedey. Later had another brief tornado near Loyal, and then the big one of the day west of Crescent, Oklahoma. Its wrapped up back behind the RFD. Will have a full report tomorrow on my site.

 

[Warren Faidley]

Chased the Leedy / Guthrie storm. Chase traffic was crazy as usual. Witnessed several "almost" major accidents, mostly involving locals running red lights and 4-way stops. Passed by one unknown chaser later in the day who was involved in a non-injury crash. Backed of the storm when it was obvious the mode was "no-see-um tornado" and planned to retreat SW when someone called in a bogus report that "Crescent" had been hit hard by a tornado so we headed there to help out. I guess the highlight of the day was being able to assist VORTEX2 by pulling a stranded van out of the mud. Cannot wait unit the storm mode this year becomes more civilized w/less rain-wrapping.

W.

 

[Peter Wharton]

Chased the Leedey/Guthrie storm most of the day - first on the spot at initiation near Leedey and sighted a brief tornado touchdown with debris whirl, before tornado became a photogenic funnel crossing the road north of us - after that storm became mostly rain-wrapped - some great structure and lots of rotation - but little visibility for tornados. After storm became outflow dominant over Guthrie, dropped south past Norman storm to target southernmost storm near Pauls Valley - exited off I35 west of Pauls Valley just in time to see rapidly rotating wall cloud/great meso structure - then tornado formed within 1/4 mile of our position to the north - brief touchdown with debris whirl and audible roar - retreated to to I35 to avoid hail core to observe needle shaped tornado crossing I35, then east on 29 - further funnel clouds/possible tornado lit by lightning - great meso structure lit up by frequent lightning - great day - 3 tornados, possible 4th - some great footage shot by the group.

Link to You Tube footage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmRz6sRJGnE

 

[Paul Sherman]

Incredible Chase Day! Hung back from the Chaser Hordes and Played the Dryline and had the Supercell pretty much to ourselves! The Lawton Storm that rolled through Purcell took its time organising but we witnessed a White Cone Tornado just North of Dibble! Then dropped South to the Tail End Charlie and witnessed another 3 Tornadoes near Wynewood including a Wedge and Cone from 2 Wall Clouds Side by Side, then watched another Tornado just West of I-35 Before calling it a day.

Paul S

 

[Brendon Lindsey]

I chased the Leedey Storm, The Cole,OK / OKC storm, then the Wynnewood Storm. 2010 finally paid off. Atleast three tornadoes. We decided to blow the huge WF storm off due to HP and crazy convergence. But I am glad I did.

 

[Steve Worthington]

Our plan was to chase NW of OK City and it paid off. Not much to say that hasn`t been already said, so heres the videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRh5SBRX9R8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn8y-c3X3kc

 

[fplowman]

Excellent pics folks.

Chased with Bhymer and Wrecke along with another friend of mine who is new to chasing and had never seen a tornado. We didn't disappoint him this time.

We left the KC area around 6:30 am and made it to Iola around 8am to hook up with Bhymer and Wrecke.

We then drove towards OKC and ended up in Edmond because we wanted to try out the Whataburger for lunch as none of us had ever ate there.

I was keeping an eye on the satellite and surface obs watching the triple point manifest itself. Watching it unfold we decided to head back North to Guthrie and then West to Kingfisher. Saw the first blip out near Leedey and started vacillating between that storm and the one that was firing between Okeene and Hennessey which was just to our north and a quick jaunt.

Anyways, we decided on the closer of the two as it was looking like it was picking up steam and growing.

We intercepted this beauty on a dirt road just slightly N. of Hennesey. Although its trajectory was about due east, we felt it was coming right at us. It was about 100 - 200 meters to our N. when it finally overcame us. By that time we had repositioned due to safety concerns.

( video still )

Chased it " the storm" to I-35 as it became HP. We then headed S. so we could get on the other Kingfisher storm that was about to hit Guthrie. Followed that storm East until the road options and visibility became poor.

All in all we had a great chase and caught about 3 or 4 tornadoes. The one in the pic was definitely the catch of the day.

 

[Alan Broerse]

Prague tornado

Luck of the draw I was assigned to the dryline in mid-west Oklahoma along I-40 at Weatherford. My navigator Earl Faubian and I watched 35 miles north as two MONSTER supercells went by with tornadoes....We could not see the tornadoes due to the crappy "Q" field between us. We could not leave the assignment in case dry line storms fired and raced to the metro. Finally storms SW fired and we raced to Moore/ Norman area to watch every storm go up rotating....Watched the wall cloud materialize in 5 minutes....and rotate NE to Choctaw....spinning faster......followed the storm to Dale and almost gave up on it....Velocities went nuts and we caught up to it between Meeker and Prague....While live on News 9 with Gary we witnessed a touchdown from a violently boiling wall cloud...my video shows a rainwrapped touchdown again a few minutes later as the storm moved towards Prague. Rotating rain curtains...love -em. I live here,,,,and still dislike chasing east of I-35....but we did what we could and bagged a Lincoln county Beast. We saw no chaser conventions...just a few LEO's and EM's spotting for their communities. Looking like 1 or 2 more Oklahoma chase days ahead before the summer ridge of death tries to move in......

 

[James Siler]

Like most everyone else, was on the storm that formed from Leedey, but got on it right outside Oakwood and then joined in on the mess of chasers. Beleive I got what the radio was saying was on the ground north of Kingfisher. Haven't had a chance to look at my still's but if I get anything worth posting, i'll put them up!

 

[Eugene Thieszen]

Northwest and South Central Oklahoma Chase

The WXtreme Chase Team picked up the Leedey storm shortly after initiation and saw our first tornado along SR 47 W of Leedey at appx 3:25 pm. Sighted another lower contrast cone NNE of Leedy not long after. Tracked the storm for a bit and then broke off for dryline action at Fay. We picked up our second storm just NE of Chickasha and followed it to near Slaughterville. At that point we headed for the Stephens/Garvin County storm and intercepted along Meridian Rd about 4 miles S of SR 29. It was a beautiful space-ship sup and that wasn't all it had to offer. As the meso approached the road, rapid rotation was evident and we began to hear the signature "waterfall" sound. The tornado finally condensed on the road at appx 8:30 and became a marvelous multiple vortex dancer. After it passed we continued to track the storm until near Sulphur and then broke off because of darkness.

Here are some vid captures:

Tornado near Leedey:

Beginning of rope out:

Tornado with powerflash on Meridian Rd SE of Elmore City:

Three partially condensed vortices:

Funnel cloud/possible tornado N of the road near Davis:

Video of Leedey tornado:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAJHpgVkVC0

Video of Garvin County Tornado:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdsHXXiXUSE

All in all a great day. 3 storms. 3 tornadoes, the third around 200 miles from the first!

Gene

 

[Brandon Goforth]

I was on the Leedey to Guthrie storm, but since I couldn't leave work until after 2:00, I arrived just after the first tornado near Leedey when it was passing between Taloga and Putnam. I have to say that was probably the least amount of fun I've ever had on a chase due to visibility, road networks, and extreme chaser convergence. I just wasn't feeling it, so I bailed near Kingfisher for the dryline storms in SC OK. Got to the storm just SW of Wynnewood in time to see a trio of tornadoes, with one being a nice multi-vortex that developed just 50-100 yards in front of me. There was some extensive tree damage and some structural damage from this about 2-3 miles west of I-35 and 4-5 miles south of highway 29. Saw the 3rd tornado from the back side near Joy, just to the east of I-35. The structure was also quite impressive with this storm. So I got a good ending to what was otherwise a very frustrating day. I'll try to get some pics up later.

 

[Brian Emfinger]

I decided to stay in E OK and hope a storm developed a bit farther down the warm front and near that OFB....and also to stay away from the herds. It was nice to not be in that mess and actually enjoy the storms.

Here is video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEUSCo-D89g

Wall Cloud north of Okemah, OK

This is the tornado warned storm that passed over Bristow (and eventually through South Tulsa)

Shelf Cloud back down on I-40